Virginia is for Lovers (of Clean American Power), Not Dirty Coal

Virginia is for Lovers (of Clean American Power), Not Dirty Coal

As citizens from around the nation jam the congressional phone lines for 72 hours,
calling for comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, US Sen.
Jim Webb (D-VA) has emerged as one of the most critical votes for a
clean energy future.

Webb's state of Virginia stands on the frontlines of the clean
energy and climate debate--and Webb, born fighting for progressive
causes in Appalachia and America, now must decide whether he will come
to the forefront of the battle for clean energy and an end to deadly
coal mining and burning, or quietly watch the fate of his state decided
by outside interests.

Every Virginian--and American--needs to call Sen. Webb today to not
only support desperately needed clean energy and climate legislation,
but to sign on as a co-sponsor with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of
the Appalachian Restoration Act to end mountaintop removal at Virginia's climate ground zero.

And then, everyone needs to make an instant vote for clean energy now
in the Virginia coalfields by voting for the Wise Energy and
Sustainable Economic Diversification and Development Project (WE SEDD),
a citizen led effort to diversify the coal dependent mono-economy of
Wise County, Va by promoting economic and environmental sustainability,
local and worker ownership, community-owned renewable energy systems
and local economic skills.

The state of Virginia loves to pimp its gorgeous Blue Ridge for
tourism--here's a recent google ad that appeared on Huffington Post
lately:

And yet, more than 67 mountains in the Blue Ridge have been blown up
and stripmined through reckless mountaintop removal operations in
Virginia--over 150 miles of pristine waterways and streams have been
jammed and sullied with toxic mining waste.

Sen. Webb understands this. In his bestselling book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, he wrote:

The every hungry industrialists have discovered that West
Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia sat atop one huge
vein of coal. And so the rape began. The people from the outside showed
up with complicated contracts that the small-scale cattle raisers and
tobacco farmers could not fully understand, asking for "rights" to
mineral deposits they could not see, and soon they were treated to a
sundering of their own earth as the mining companies ripped apart their
way of life, so that after a time the only option was to go down into
the hole and bring the Man his coal, or starve. The Man got his coal,
and the profits it brought when he shipped it out. They got their
wages, black lung, and the desecration of their land.

That rape of the land, and the communities, continues today. Over
25% of Wise County, in Webb's beloved southwest Virginia, has been
stripmined. And it has left the region in an economic stranglehold,
keeping out any sustainable development. As Justin Maxson of the
Mountain Association for Community Economic Development wrote in a
letter to the Washington Post recently:

In fact, coal mining jobs amount to only about 2 percent of
employment in the central Appalachian region; the percentage is only
slightly higher if you consider related employment. It does not account
for anything approaching most of the employment. In Wise County, where
The Post's story was set, there were 2,537 coal miners, or about 11
percent of total county employment, in 2004. That's fewer workers than
hold jobs in retail trade (3,118).

Instead of inflating the importance of the Appalachian coal
industry, coal counties need to face reality. It's time to diversify
their economies, look at the facts and stop believing in a comfortable
yet nonetheless fictional story of coal's overwhelming contribution to
the region's well-being.

Last month, Virginians converged on the state capitol in Richmond in an historic hearing to introduce the first "stream saver" bill in
the state legislature, in order to halt the illegal practice of burying
Virginia headwater streams with mining waste. The bill never got out of
committee.

"Our whole way of life here in southwest Virginia is being destroyed
by strip mining and has been for a generation. I don't understand why
it's been allowed to go on for so long. Our waterways are our most
precious resource and we made the trip to Richmond to make sure our
legislators know that," former coal miner and retired federal mine
inspector Larry Bush Bush testified.

Cabell West of Richmond, president of the 3,000-plus member Garden
Club of Virginia, which unanimously passed a resolution last month in
support of SB564, also addressed the committee. "I remind you that you
have pledged to uphold the Virginia State Constitution. Article XI of
our constitution reads: it shall be the Commonwealth's policy to
protect its atmosphere, lands and waters from pollution, impairment or
destruction for the benefit, enjoyment and general welfare of the
people of the Commonwealth'. For the sake of the people, please protect
our headwater streams in southwest Virginia by passing Senate Bill 564
to correct this wrong."

Further

In the face of increasingly catastrophic climate news - rising sea levels, wildfires, drought - a team of Russian photographers with the non-profit AirPano have taken to the air in helicopters, airplanes, dirigibles and hot air balloons to offer virtual and panoramic tours of the planet's most stunning locations, urban to wilderness, to remind us what's at stake. Take note.